Join Jeff Gordon for his live STL sports chat at 1 p.m. Friday
Bring your Cards, Blues, Mizzou, SLU and MLS questions and comments, and talk to columnist Jeff Gordon in his weekly live chat.
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Dunn has a lot of trade value because he hasn't signed his bigger money deal yet, so I can see him getting traded for a future asset. I could see them losing Sanford or Barbashev and just moving on with life. At some point those guys make bigger money and they become harder to fit within a cap system. But Sundqvist and Scandella are definitely Chief guys. -
Hi Jeff. Cuonzo Martin is not getting fired despite what happens because he is owed $6M next year whether he coaches or not. Why do ADs give out these ridiculous escalators in contracts? The guy cannot recruit elite players, he has never been a good game coach and now Mizzou is stuck with him until 2022-23. In the past 20 years we’ve had maybe 5 good seasons. How does Mizzou turn around our basketball program? Thanks -
Cuonzo Martin is not getting fired because his team has been nationally ranked most of the season and it's heading to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years. Given the disaster he inherited -- a 27-68 record the previous three years -- and the competitive challenges of the SEC, his accomplishment is considerable.
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Heya, Bobo, thanks for the chat.
Maybe you can help me with something, good scribe. At my gambling website the Reds are the #2 choice to win the Central this year, and that baffles me. Milwaukee has made the playoffs three straight years and they upgraded their keystone with Kolten Wong. And the Cubs won the division last year, and have been much better than the Reds every season since 2015. Sure the Cubs lost Darvish, but the Reds lost Bauer and got nothing but a draft pick, while Chicago got Zach Davies who's secretly been truly excellent for two years running. (ERA better than Darvish, Giolito, Charlie Morton, et. al., for 2019/20.) Why would the Reds possibly be any better than a .500 team, Gordo? -
The projections have the Reds, Cards, Cubs and Brewers all around .500. This will come down to which teams add or subtract on the fly, which teams stay the healthiest and which teams find a few internal solutions. These teams were in mutual disarmament mode untl the Cards made the Arenado trade.
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Don't have time to look that up. I remember being on the road once covering the Blues in Detroit around Thanksgiving. I went home and ate turkey with the family. The players had a team meal at Motown restaurant and got foot poisoning. Guys played the Red Wings using towels as diapers. The dressing room had to look like the closing scene from "Taxi Driver."
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Given that Carp isn't going anywhere and there is a real possibility with his plate discipline he could get his OBP up and the Cards need a Lead off batter so is there any chance at all he could play LF? I really hope he doesn't play 2nd and I think he would do less damage in Left. Thanks again!
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There are very few players in that category. Among those very few players we may see more contracts this early in careers because the price for the truly exceptional player only gets greater. Also, look for the next CBA to get players to free agency a year or two quicker.
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JG - First of all, I prefer Rendezvous for bbq in Memphis. Secondly, is it my imagination or are teams really paying a lot of attention to Kyrou these days. He scored a lot at the start of the season, but once that fast start became known he started drawing a crowd. Vladi had to deal with this as well. Do you think Kyrou can adjust and be a 30+ goal scorer? Seems like he's got 3 guys on him whenever the puck comes to him now. Maybe put him with Vladi on the same line when possible?
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I see Kyrou progressing in so many ways. Not only is he fast up the ice on the rush, he's quick on the puck on the offensive zone. He has 30-goal potential but he will need playing time and especially power-play time to get there. I believe he will earn that as he matures as a player.
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Fowler got over $80,000,000 and gave the team 2 WAR in 5 years. And they gave up a first round draft pick to boot. Even a badly bloated Heyward contract would have worked out much better than that -- so far anyway. (Thanks in large part to excellent defense, J-Hey has been worth nearly 10 WAR in his 5 Cub seasons, was very, very good in 2020, and is still just 31.)
Question, Bobo: Is it just me or are the Padres being over-rated by more than a bit right now? Upon cursory examination they had A LOT of career years at the plate in 2020, and their prestige acquisition Darvish had his best year at age 33, therefore highly unlikely to be sustainable. Even money says they win 84-86 games in 2021. -
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Ha! Thanks for the "Taxi Driver" reference. Harvey Keitel had it coming.
I have read repeatedly about St. Louis' pitching depth -- and when it comes to the bullpen I couldn't agree more. Lots of live arms with MLB success under their belts. On the other hand, how many rotation candidates have pitched 160, 170 solid MLB innings over the past few years? Kim was great in 2020 but it was a handful of frames. Mikolas is a ? returning from the knife. Waino last posted a sub-4.15 ERA with at least 100 innings waaay back in 2014. Carlos hasn't been himself since 2017. Many, many reasons to bolster with an Odo signing. Or am I being unfair to the army of incumbents? -
The Cardinals are interested in Odorizzi, but they are not interesting in a bidding war. The stated goal is to play with a lower payroll this year and they can meet that goal thanks to creative financing with the Arenado deal. But otherwise their 2021 budget is largely spent. For now putting 10 or 11 incumbents in the mix for five rotation slot makes sense.
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As much grief as MO takes for the Fowler signing, they needed a CF at the time. Adam Eaton commanded Lucas Giolito, who finished 6 and 7 in the AL CY voting the last 2 years and has 4 more years of control. Dane Dunning, who looked decent in a late stint with the WS last year and a young guy, Reynaldo Lopez, who has eaten innings, but may not be great. The value of those guys alone is more than what the Cards paid Fowler. The other alternative at the time was Ian Desmond who was a disaster in CO. MO always said these contract are 1 year longer than you like. At the time they signed Fowler, I was thinking at 3 years $54M I like it, the contract is too long but the Cards have a CF. It didn't work out as planned, but he was the obvious alternative at the time.
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If Bud Selig and steroid-tainted managers are in the Hall Of Fame, it's because ignoring or even tacitly approving illegal behavior is NOT remotely the same as actually violating MLB drug policy to gain a competitive advantage. If I know my neighbor cheats on his taxes, should I be prosecuted? Of course not. Cheaters get punished in a fair world. And using illegal PEDs is not the same as letting it go unreported.
Q: Is this Jeff Albert's last chance to show he can help some Cardinal hitters? It feels like there hasn't been a single player improve during his 2-season tenure, Bobo. -
I disagree on the PEDs. If team management and the field staff maintain a culture that welcomes PED abuase, then the whole operation is guilt. In the case of baseball, MLB was guilty.As for Albert, his leash has been very, very long. It could remain slack if simply adding Arenado and removing a couple of bad hitters from the everyday lineup makes a big difference. But it will be interesting to see what happens with DeJong, Edman, Bader, Carlson and O'Neill this season. They all seem capable of doing more, but will they.
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